Lawyers: Lie Test Proves Jewell A Hero

Atlanta Guard Passed Polygraph, They Say

August 21, 1996|By New York Times News Service.

ATLANTA — In their latest effort to pressure federal investigators, lawyers for Richard Jewell released the results of a lie detector test Tuesday and produced a polygraph examiner who said he was convinced Jewell had no involvement in the July 27 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park.

"My conclusion was that he was totally innocent of any connection with the pipe bomb that went off in the park," said Richard Rackleff, a polygraph examiner who previously worked for 27 years for the FBI, which is now investigating Jewell and the bombing.

The bomb left one woman dead and 111 people injured, and contributed to the fatal heart attack of a Turkish cameraman.

Rackleff said he spent about 15 hours over two days administering the lie test to Jewell, asking him whether he made the bomb, whether he placed it in the park and whether he knew who did.

Jewell, who first directed the police to the knapsack containing the pipe bomb and helped clear park visitors from the area, answered negatively in each instance.

The examiner said that the 33-year-old Jewell "was not deceptive in his responses," adding that the results "were unquestionable and conclusive."

Jewell's lawyers acknowledged that polygraph tests are fallible and admissible in court only under special circumstances. Rackleff conceded Tuesday that his findings occasionally have been proven wrong.

The lawyers said they had told Jewell not to take a polygraph test administered by the FBI because they do not trust the bureau to give a fair test.

Jewell has not been charged in the case, but he has been the subject of intense examination by federal investigators and the news media for more than three weeks. The FBI has declined to disclose whether it has found any evidence against him.

An FBI spokesman would not comment Tuesday. Although Jewell remains in virtual seclusion in the apartment he shares with his mother, his lawyers have grown increasingly visible over the last week.

In interviews with reporters, they have ridiculed what they maintain is the lack of physical evidence against Jewell and have demanded repeatedly that the FBI formally clear him and grant him an apology.

Last week, Martin led television photographers on a tour of Centennial Olympic Park in an effort to demonstrate that Jewell could not have found the bomb and then walked to a pay telephone several blocks away in time to make a 911 call warning of the bomb.

"Everything we know about the case says he's telling the truth," Martin said Tuesday. "His truth makes sense. The man's a hero, not a villain. He saved lives; he didn't take them."